Lisa did not talk or come over for three days straight. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, Taylor saw her again on the boardwalk after her dad told her to go out and talk to her. She was just watching people from a bench outside the bookstore with a book on her lap.

"Um, hello? Lisa?" Taylor called out timidly.

Lisa looked over with a stern look on her face. She must have seen something, because she suddenly looked uncertain. "Hello." She did not look happy still.

The taller girl opened her mouth, but closed it without saying anything. She looked down at her feet. "I ruined it, didn't I?"

The other girl was thinking hard. "No. But I'm still upset. My power told me how bad the explosion would have been."

"I just wanted to know that I could fly it." Taylor hesitated there for a moment. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I'm sorry, too. I stole your key so I could force my way in and that I started to pin Armsmaster's ears back. In retrospect, that was kind of dumb too." Lisa was actually sincere about it. She had a lot of time to think about the situation she had jumped into. "Just don't pull that silence trick again." She sighed as she looked dejected. "At least unless it's really necessary. My mouth seems to be quite barbed ever since I triggered."

"Sure. Only if absolutely necessary. So, lunch on me?" Taylor asked hopefully.

Ten minutes later they were eating cheap Mexican food in the shade on the eateries' patio.

"This is really good. And the price wasn't that bad," Lisa said in surprise after she had tried it.

"I guess the guy used to be a dock worker so he knows dad." She took a bite, chewed it slowly and then swallowed. "Say, Lisa? Would you like a safer adventure?"

"Oh?"

"I need to take the chronal energy I've gotten and put it at a specific point in the TARDIS. But it's a bit of a walk and I'd rather not do something stupid. I think It'll take a few hours to get to the location," the proto-time lord explained.

"It sounds fun, I guess. Just a hike in an alien space ship?" Her eyes widened as her power told her what the energy was going to be used for.

"Great!"

Taylor had found a fairly large backpack, which got a raised eyebrow from the other girl. "What?"

"You are a bit stronger now?" Lisa continued after she nodded. "Interesting. I wonder what other changes occurred."

"Oh, I have this weird perfect sense of time. I can still lose track of it, but when I want to I can know the time within a minute. Doesn't replace the need for an alarm clock though. I was nearly late this morning to drop off the absorbers. Let's head on in to the TARDIS."

Lisa gave her a chuckle at that as she followed Taylor into the 'dresser' that now led into TARDIS. "Tardis means something? Time and..." She staggered for a second as her power returned. A shake of her head and she was okay.

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. This is a Type 90 TARDIS, a pretty tough customer. It took on four enemy ships and won," the young girl said proudly. She started filling her backpack with silver and glass tubes.

"The Daleks, right? And my best guess if we ever encounter them says to run really, really fast away." Lisa gave a nod, sending her blue and blonde locks of hair flying.

"Really nasty clones that ride around in mini-tanks. One of them could probably solo the entire pre-cape US Army. They are just that scary." Taylor gave a shudder at that.

"No turbo-lifts? The future has failed me," the parahuman noted unhappily.

"Not advanced enough. Stairs are the backup, but normally you just let the TARDIS read where you want to go and it warps space to get you there after a nice walk. Which it's in no shape to do that. Hence the walk of three miles in roughly that direction and about twenty-five floors up." She scowled at a little silver sphere in the palm of her hand. "We are going to hate stairs after this, I think."

"Literally a hike and a half. So you are using the chronal energy to fix it?" Lisa was busy tying her hair in a ponytail.

"Exactly. Basically, I'm letting it heal faster, but specific things first. All this chronal energy and it's only going to help about 10 %." Taylor sighed at that. "But less of a wreck and it should actually be able to turn on its shields."

"You want to go to the Moon, first? No, you want to go to Mars!"

"Lisa, you are making it hard to give you a cool surprise," the half-alien complained.

That just got her laughing with her new friend.

"That's a problem," Taylor said thoughtfully as she looked through a small window next to a 'blast door'.

"What is that light? Is that the power plant? No, that doesn't seem right."

"No. It's more like a multidimensional capacitor. But a lot more complicated. And there's a very small crack in there. Non-lethal if you can dodge the decaying Atron energy flows. Which you might not be able to see too well. So I need to go in there." She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and one of the flasks from her backpack.

"I'll just go around that corner and into a room and lock myself in, okay?" Lisa said, then she bolted down the hallway.

"I'm not going to blow anything up!" She continued to glare back the way the other girl had run. "It was only once."

Seeing that there was no one to really argue with any more, she turned back and carefully opened the mechanized door and then dashed in. Taylor had her eyes open, ducking or sidestepping the dangerous decaying radiation zones.

Taylor finally made it to a control panel and quickly inserted one of the cylinders. Immediately the hairline crack in the wall sealed up and a healthy hum filled the 'engine' room. She pulled out the last (and spare) chronal absorber and started to clean up the decaying particles. She ambled back through the blast door and around the corner that Lisa had used.

"You can come out now. All safe."

Lisa poked her head out. "Whatever that decaying atrion radiation was, I didn't want the slightest chance of it touching me. I got the feeling it's very, very poisonous to humans."

"It's not good," Taylor admitted. "But come on. Work to do."

Ten minutes later, they were emptying the Atron energy flasks into another control panel.

"So this is going to help fix the TARDIS up about 10 % or so?" Lisa mused to herself curiously. "What are you going to do when it's all fixed up?"

"Well, that trip to Mars for one. I have a vague... understanding that there might be ruins of an alien civilization there. If there isn't, that indicates a lot of my 'historical knowledge' isn't terribly useful on this Earth. And I'm not sure I want to traverse through the dimensional rift under Brockton Bay to actually do any real time travel. The TARDIS is only running on ambient power right now. The fully controlled and very precise time travel and controls that the Time Lords did requires a very vast amount of energy," Taylor said as she switched flasks.

"Wow, my head hurts just a little bit trying to wrap itself around 'vast amounts of energy' that you are talking about. Something about using a black hole for power? How does that even work?"

The darker-haired girl shrugged. "Not totally sure myself. It took our... my mother's entire civilization to freeze the Eye of Harmony in the state of a star collapsing into a degenerating blackhole to do that. But it could power every TARDIS ever built simultaneously."

"So can't just whip up your own. So no time travel for the foreseeable future." Lisa chuckled at that.

"Still lots of cool gadgets and I'm very tech savvy. I modified my PRT cell phone to work anywhere. And technically any-when, too. With full regular phone and Internet service for free through the TARDIS," Taylor said with a wide grin.

"Isn't that insanely difficult? No, I guess for you it was as complicated as me learning how to wire a light switch." Lisa felt a twinge from her power and forced her perception down to its lowest level.

"Right. Well, let's get back home. How about BLT's for lunch?"

Lisa nodded happily. "Sure!" She paused a second. "Say, can you fix up a cell phone with all the perks you just mentioned?"

A week later, Lisa looked worried. The three people 'escorted' her off to talk to a man who wanted to recruit her. This seriously seemed bad as it looked like she had no choice in being conscripted. One of the thugs yanked her hard as they moved to the parking garage.

"Hey! You! Stop!" shouted out a girl's voice.

"Oh, no!" Lisa said, hunching her shoulders forward.

"There's the other girl. Let her get closer, then invite her along," the leader of the tactical team ordered.

Taylor trotted up. "Let her go," she said even as she fingered her sonic screwdriver.

"Hands out of your pocket. You are both coming with us. Or Sarah here has permanent kidney problems," the big beefy man said, showing the tiny holdout pistol in his hand.

The young alien blinked, knowing she should be able to stop them, but her mind went blank at the actual planning parts.

"Now," the lead brute of a thug said.

Five minutes later they sat in the back of a white van as it drove through traffic at a fast, legal pace.

"So... Sarah." Taylor looked around nervously as she tried to figure out where they were headed.

The blonde girl shrugged. "I didn't want to be her any more."

The van pulled into a construction site and down a narrow ramp into an underground room. Massive, heavy doors closed behind them. Locks shifted into place with a heavy clank.

"Out. Hands on your head," the head mook ordered as he pointed at them with an uzi.

The two girls followed the men down a concrete hall and through a large, armored door. The new room had another door along with a metal table and two folding chairs. They sat down as directed. The head thug put his hand to his ear.

"Search them and then cuff them to the table," Mook #1 ordered.

Taylor's phone rang at the first step towards the girls. "Oh, sorry. Let me get that," she said, pulling her cell phone from the same pocket as her primary sonic screwdriver. She looked at the screen. "I should probably answer this call."

"Who is it?" the big, bald man demanded.

"Um, just this guy I know who wanted me to do some part time work. I'm not supposed to meet him for a few hours, but ever since I was late he has been bugging him," she said, but stopped lifting the phone to her ear as they all pointed their guns at her.

Lisa slapped her forehead as the mook grabbed the phone.

"M. Arms? What sort of name is that?" he demanded.

"The sort that doesn't freak my dad out?" Taylor replied truthfully.

The mook hit the answer button. "Hello?" he said in an angry voice.

"-e Lady, I thought you were going to call me ten minutes ago about the delivery. There's been a hangup with the-" Armsmaster's voice.

"My daughter can't talk, as I'm about to ground her for lying to me," the Mook said, grinding his teeth in annoyance. How was the phone getting signal here?

Silence stretched out for a long moment. "Of course, Mr. Ankelbeiten. Is there anything I can do to help? I would be happy to talk to you about the good charity work she is doing for us."

"No, Mr. Arms, there isn't. I don't have time to talk to anyone right now," he replied.

"I understand, Mr. Alkelbeiten. Just let your daughter know that we understand her family situation and I hope to hear from her soon."

"Goodbye, sir," the mook said, tapping the hang up button. "Okay, now search them."

Lisa sighed as her phone disappeared into a shielded security box with Taylor's phone. "And I thought we had lucked out there."

"They are just phones, you know," Taylor told her as cuffs clicked around their wrists.

Four minutes later, the opposite door opened and a macabre figure stepped in. For just a second, Taylor thought it had to be her skinny father in the weird get up, but he never walked with that calm grace in such a skin tight outfit with the snake running from one ankle, around his torso and then down one arm.

"I am Coil. And you, Sarah Livsey, are going to work for me." He waited for a long second, then continued. "Don't think you or your friend will ever be found if I don't want you to. I control destiny, you see. With my power and your Thinker power, we will move my plan ahead years."

"What makes you think I will work for you?" Lisa (Sarah) asked, her lips curled down in anger.

"Because I can break you without even touching you. I mean, you care for your friend Taylor here greatly, don't you? It would only take me minutes of torturing her to make you beg to work for me." Coil traced her jaw with one finger, then flicked her blue-streaked blonde hair. "To think that you believed this blue would hide you from your father. It is only because of my interference that he did not find you."

Taylor frowned, trying to figure out his Thinker power. Because it was obvious he had something, but it eluded her. "He's using a Thinker power-"

"I told you, I control Destiny," Coil said, sounding annoyed. He palmed a regular quarter, showing both sides. "Heads." He flipped it onto the table, where it rolled and tumbled to land heads up. He played with the coin for a few second, called and then threw heads again. Then twice more in just a minute.

"I could do that," Taylor said with a roll of her eyes.

"Taylor!" Lisa hissed out.

"Oh? Really? Every time? So you are a parahuman also?" Coil asked, a hidden hitch in his voice.

"No, but any two bit con man could do that. It just takes practice," she bluffed.

He handed the coin to her, then gestured to the table.

"Heads every time, right?" she asked. At his nod she tossed it, with the coin landing heads up. Then another ten times, even when Coil bumped the table as it landed

"I... how the heck did you do that?" Lisa complained. What part of alien included throwing coins?

Coil leaned over Taylor, then abruptly stopped and then turned to his head mook. "Get the rifles. We have an intruder. It appears that they were followed."

"I thought you controlled Destiny?" Taylor said, a small vicious grin on her face.

"I do. And your very life." Coil pulled out a gun from behind his back, clicked the safety and sat down at the table. One of the guards came back, now wearing black tactical gear. "Guard them. If anyone comes in, kill them."

With that, Coil disappeared back through the second door.

Velocity zipped back to Armsmaster. "There's a big armored door up ahead. Too big for me to flit through at full speed, sorry."

"Acknowledged. Dragon, are you still spoofing their cameras?" Armsmaster asked.

"Yes. The tracker on Time Lady's phone is approximately five hundred feet ahead and about seventy-five feet down. I've blocked three calls from workers here to company phones. Government records say this is not part of Fortress's Endbringer shelter they were building. In fact, there isn't supposed to be anything down there," she replied through his helmet.

"PRT troops are moving into the main building and that large sewer entrance?"

"Yes."

"Then Dauntless and I will move through the main door. Assault and Battery are to maintain the perimeter. No one comes or goes." Armsmaster clomped down the the steep tunnel access. His helmet's sensors fed him information, leading him to jab his halberd into a hidden junction box and short a connection. "Push it open, Dauntless. Just like we practiced."

"Gotcha." He crouched down in front of the center seam and pushed his kite shield's energy projection against the doors and pushed them in and open. "I see a white van, no license plates."

"Door to the right-" Armsmaster said, then stopped as several warnings buzzed from the sensors on his weapon. "It's rigged to blow up."

Dauntless raised up his shield just in time, as the C4 in the center of the door acted like a claymore mine. "I don't think someone likes us. You think this is the Empire?"

"Not their MO. They would have thrown a few of their capes at us by now." Armsmaster used his halberd to open the blasted door and used the microdot camera (one of two dozen on the weapon) to peek around the corner. "Four tactical in army gear, tinkertech rifles. Looks like Scarlet Gem's work from Detroit. Velocity, distract them after the strobe." He flicked the head of the halberd out into the door, flashing a ten thousand candle flash down the hallway, much to the discomfort of the soldiers.

A blur zipped in the moment afterwards, then reappeared. "I wrapped them in tape, but we should continued. There's another door I can't get past. All the others are storerooms or bunks." Velocity gave them a wave, then zipped off again.

Armsmaster trotted down the hallway, followed by Dauntless who skimmed behind. Seeing the thick metal door, he blasted it with his halberd. The lock exploded, opening the door as a whine faded away.

"Put down the gun!" Armsmaster ordered in a loud voice.

The soldier smacked the gun, only to watch in disbelief as the magazine dropped to the ground. "What the hell? I just cleaned this-!"

Zaaaaap went Dauntless's spear. "Two girls cuffed to a table?"

"What's going on?" the leader of the ENE Protectorate demanded.

"We were kidnapped off the street by this whacko called Coil! He kept going on and on about controlling destiny, then tossing coins. It was really freaky!" Lisa said, letting tears of (only slightly faked) fear flow.

Sounds of shouting sounded from the door on the far side of the room, then the retort of a pistol. Dauntless beat Armsmaster to the door, slashing it open with his spear.

A man in a rumpled suit leaned up against the doorway on the far side of the office, holding a smoking pistol. The crumpled form of Coil lay on the ground.

"Thank god! How did you know that I had been infiltrated and kidnapped by this madman?" Thomas Calvert asked, relief on his face. "Luckily he slipped up when all of his men started to run around and I was able to get a gun."

"Don't worry. We're here to rescue you all," Armsmaster said, frowning at the twitching body on the ground. "Velocity! We need a triage team down here now!"

Taylor turned off her sonic screwdriver, slipping it into a fanny pack around her waist even as the security case in the corner fuzzed then disappeared in a Transmat "VWOOOORP" sound. She looked over at Lisa. "What?"

"So, just normal kids grabbed off the street, right?" the parahuman asked.

"Right. I'll follow your lead. I think you can lie better than I can."